1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to toner replenishing device for use in developing means of an electrophotographic copying machine or facsimile, etc. More specifically, the invention relates to a toner storage cartridge having both a removable tear strip which seals an opening in the cartridge and a slidable cover which protects the tear strip during storage. The invention also relates to a device for fixing the toner cartridge to the developing means.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There is known a toner replenishing cartridge as disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Unexamined Publication No. 41364/1984. According to such known cartridge, it is easy to replenish a toner receptacle of a developing means with toner stored in a cartridge housing. The cartridge is so structured that the toner remaining in the cartridge housing can be prevented from falling or being scattered around the machine when pulling and detaching an empty cartridge housing from the device.
The known toner relenishing cartridge comprises, as illustrated in FIG. 11, guide members 17, 18 disposed on both sides of an open end 14 of a cartridge housing 15 for guiding or restricting the operations of inserting and removing the cartridge in the axial direction of a toner replenishing roller, a removable flexible sheet 22 sealing open end 14, a sheet-tearing member 23 formed by folding sheet 22 at the front end of cartridge housing in a direction reverse to the direction of cartridge insertion, a cover 24 slidable along guide members 17, 18 and covering sheet-tearing member 23 and sheet 22. The cartridge is inserted into the toner receptacle of the developing means while being disengaged from cover 24, and the sheet 22 is torn from the cartridge housing by pulling sheet-tearing member 23, whereby toner within housing 15 falls through open end 14 and replenishes the toner receptacle of the developing means. An empty cartridge housing 15 is removed without dropping or scattering any toner remaining in the cartridge housing 15 around the machine by positioning the cover 24 in a predetermined location and pulling the cartridge outwardly into the cover with the open end 14 of cartridge housing 15 closed by the cover 24. In this manner, the known cartridge is considered useful.
However, the known cartridge still can be improved with respect to its handling efficiency.
Thus, in the known toner replenishing cartridge A, as shown in FIG. 12, the cover 24 is liable to slide in the sheet tearing direction relative to the cartridge, since the cover 24 covering sheet 22 is relatively slidable in opposite directions. This can cause various problems. Thus, the sheet 22 sealing the open end 14 possibly can be torn, and toner unexpectedly can be dropped and/or scattered upon immediate tearing of the sheet 22 by pinching the held end of sheet 22 by the cover 24 when disengaging the cover 24. When an empty cartridge housing 15 is removed, as shown in FIG. 13, the cartridge housing 15 likely may overrun the cover 24. When such event occurs, any toner remaining in the cartridge housing 15 will be dropped and scattered as a result of uncovering the open end 14 of the cartridge housing 15 at the overrun position. Since the device has no mechanism functioning to fix the position of the toner cartridge, there is the inconvenience that the cartridge housing has to be held at a predetermined position by one hand and the sheet has to be torn by the other hand in order to prevent the toner cartridge from being removed when tearing the sheet. Also, the cartridge housing is apt to move undesirably due to mechanical vibrations of the machine housing during a copying operation. Such vibrations may be caused, for example, by the movement of an optical system unit including an exposure lamp or mirror in a movable optical system type copying machine, by the movement of a paper stand in a paper stand movable type copying machine, by rotation of a photoconductive drum or various rollers, etc., that tend to remove any toner adhered on the inside walls of the cartridge housing and to scatter them through the open end of the cartridge housing into the inside of the machine, and as a result, bring about problems of staining not only the inside of the machine but also paper sheets therein.